NCJ Number
109602
Date Published
1985
Length
48 pages
Annotation
This study examines the future of economic crime and the police role in responding to it, particularly check, credit card, and computer crime.
Abstract
A review of economic crime statistics indicates that such crime amounts to a $300 billion loss per year. The survey of a representative sample of police departments reveals that approximately 1 percent of their resources is used to combat economic crime. Approximately 1.2 million private police and security guards also target such crime. Check fraud is not likely to be a significant problem in the next decade, since the use of checks will be gradually phased out. Local police should reduce involvement. Although credit cards will continue to be a dominant form of money, they will be slowly phased out in favor of the debit card. Local police should increase involvement in this area. Regarding computer crime, the number of cases has stabilized, but the loss potential is higher. Local police should become more involved in this crime. The overall recommendation of the study is that policymakers should add the 'standard and value' weight of their local police departments to the containment of economic crime, since the containment of such crime will probably be more important to the strength of this country in the future than even military defense. Appended list of types of economic crime, 18 footnotes, 21-item bibliography. (Author summary modified)